By: Sandy Dean: I sometimes hear from both men and women who want to know how to increase a man’s X or Y sperm count because they are trying to conceive and they want one specific gender. For example, I might hear from a wife who has her heart set on conceiving a girl baby and she wants to know how to get her husband’s X sperm count up. Or, I might hear from a hopeful father-to-be who wants a boy to carry on the family name and is looking for easy ways to increase his Y sperm count. The reason for this is that it is a Y sperm chromosome that produces a boy baby and it is an X that produces a girl.

And people often intuitively know that gender selection at home is in part a numbers game. While both X and Y race to the egg, typically (except for the case of twins,) only one can fertilize it. So people figure that one way to tip the odds in their favor is to ensure that they have more of the sperm chromosomes that are going to give them the gender that they want. They want to find out ways to increase their sperm count of only one chromosome.

Unfortunately, mother nature hasn’t set it up this way. Men have equal amounts of both types of sperm and, although there are easy and non invasive methods to raise your sperm count in general, you can’t raise one set of chromosomes while lowering the other. If a man has been told by his doctor that he has low sperm count, there are ways to naturally raise both X and Y sperm counts, like: wearing boxer shorts instead of briefs; avoiding saunas, hot tubs or hot showers; making sure he is getting enough vitamins and minerals (specifically zinc and selenium;) and eliminating the use of illegal drugs or smoking. In addition, if you abstain from sex for three days before you try to conceive, the man’s sperm count will likely be a little higher.

So where does this leave you if you want one gender over another? While I don’t see the point in trying to raise only a particular type of sperm, I also know that instead, couples will often try to decrease the sperm chromosomes that will give them the gender that they would rather not have. For example, couples who want boy babies can diminish the female producing X sperm by using specialty douches. In addition, they can ensure that the Y sperm remain by consuming an alkaline diet. Likewise, couples who want girl babies can use the douching tactic as well, but they can also consume an acidic diet. Doing so helps to eliminate some of the boy sperm. Two other things can help with this also. You can use the correct timing for your conception (by conceiving before ovulation for a girl baby and after it for a boy) and the correct sexual positions. None of these things increases sperm count, but they do help to either discourage the sperm that you don’t want or they help to preserve those that you need to give you the gender that you desire.

A good place to start is to test yourself using a PH tester. This will tell you if you are starting out acidic and alkaline and will help you in tracking your progress as you try douche regimens or make changes to your diet. So to answer the question posed, while a man can do things to increase sperm count, he can’t isolate the sperm chromosomes. But there are things that you both can do to decrease the chromosomes you do want and increase those that you don’t.

If you need help coming up with the best tactics for your situation, I’ve put together a few websites that might be useful. There’s more detailed explanations that might make this process a little easier. You can check out http://conceive-a-boy-baby.com or http://conceive-a-girl-baby.com depending on which is applicable to you.